Holiday Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Over the holidays, there are so many sales, offers, giveaways and deals competing over each other that it is very easy for a small business to get lost in all of the noise and big budgets. So to help you be heard and seen, here are a few of our favourite holiday season marketing ideas that you could try.

Give a gift with purchase

You could throw in a gift card for your own business to encourage the customer to come back next year to buy again, or maybe add a small extra item when you package up your online orders as a gift for your customers. You could even have a reciprocal offer with another small business - maybe a gift card for a local coffee shop, who in turn hands out an offer for your business to their customers.

Holiday-focused email campaign

An email drip campaign for a “12 days of Christmas” sale is a great marketing tool - especially for an ecommerce business.

Theme your email campaigns to match your overall marketing idea.

Holiday keywords

Give your SEM a refresh for the holiday season and take advantage of specific Christmas-themed keywords and phrases like “Christmas gift guides” or “hairstyle for Christmas party” - whatever might be applicable to your business. It’s a great way to capture some new site traffic and potentially some new customers too.

Facebook ads

If you’re running a holiday campaign, don’t neglect to include Facebook advertising as part of your strategy - it’s a really great way to target your local area on a small budget. Use eye-catching imagery that reflects your campaign idea, and maybe boost some posts that have great holidays-related content.

Fun holiday videos

This may not bring in the big bucks, but it is something a little fun to do that may bring some awareness to your brand. You and your team could create a funny holidays-themed video and share it via email, on social media, on YouTube and on your website. Or maybe use it as your Christmas card to go to your customers.

Add Christmas sparkle to your branding

Add a little Christmas cheer to your logo, or your social media profile or cover pictures. Update your email and website banners, your print media, your email signature - anything that can be updated could get a little sparkle added to it for the holiday season.

Update your imagery, logo, profile pictures and more!

Share holiday themed updates

Add some seasonal-specific content to your marketing calendar that you can then share on your website, social media or email. For example, a bar might share their favourite holiday cocktails, a beauty salon could share tips on how to do your hair and makeup for the office Christmas party, and a gym could put out top tips to stay healthy over the holidays. Put your business spin on it, but don’t make it all about your product and sales. Your customers will engage more with interesting, helpful content than in-your-face sales messages.

Reward your social media fans

If you have a strong social media following, reward them with an exclusive offer such a voucher code that is only available on that platform, or unique product that is only shared with them. Christmas is a time of giving back, so this is a nice way to thank your social brand ambassadors for supporting your business throughout the year.

Partner up with another small business

Supporting another small business is also another great way to both give back, and promote your own business. You could try partner with a business that compliments your own and maybe offer bundled deals to both of your customers. For example, a nail salon and beauty salon may team up to offer bundled nails and makeup offers for work Christmas parties.

Organise a holiday themed competition

Do something that asks your customers to engage with your brand, rather than just spend money - for example, to enter they could have to submit photos of themselves wearing ugly Christmas outfits, or tell their funniest family holiday stories. Have the entries posted on social media and giveaway a small “gift” for the winner.

There are tons of fun things you can do around the holidays, and they don’t all have to be about dollars off and big, themed sales. If you need some help putting a few ideas together to promote your small business this holiday, get in touch today and we’ll be happy to help. We also have some exclusive Christmas packages available at the moment to help you implement these ideas during the busy season.